Which rocker was nearly the villain in T2?

Few films in the last couple of decades have been as impressive as the groundbreaking sci-fi epic ‘Terminator 2: Judgment Day’, released back in 1991. But would the picture have become even MORE iconic had the casting not been tweaked at the last minute? Maybe.

Robert Patrick, the actor who portrayed Arnold Schwarzenegger’s foe, the evil T-1000, recently revealed in an interview with ‘The Hollywood Reporter’ that he wasn’t the original choice for the role. In fact, a superstar of the music world was supposed to fill the boots of the creepy bad robot…

Billy Idol.

According to Patrick, Idol was set to play the T-1000, in fact he saw Billy’s image AS the character. Unfortunately, Idol was injured in a motorcyle accident just before filming started and wasn’t able to physically do what the role demanded. Director James Cameron, who liked Patrick’s intimidating take on the T-1000, cast Patrick instead and….well, the rest is film history.

So….why Idol?? Patrick says the character was originally envisioned as a “cross between David Bowie and James Dean”. Okay, I guess I can see that. What do you think? Would it have been as good a movie had Billy Idol gone toe-to-toe with big Arnie? We’ll never know. ~ Jason